Yucahu Sumakutaa
|rank_and_unit = |allegiance = }}Yucahu Sumakutaa, known as the 'The Star-Born', he was the Primarch of the IVth Legion - the Void Eagles. Growing as a military commander in the Coalition Worlds, he became a master of astral warfare, and took a reputation as an uncompromising commander, with little regard for anything other than the prosecution of the Great Crusade. History The Star-Born The origins of the Fourth Primarch are, in comparison to those of his Legion, covered in much mystery. It is known that he landed on a civilised world in the galactic south-west, a planet surrounded by shipyards pre-dating Old Night; a gift its people would seem to have forgotten until the coming to the Emperor's son. History would forget the name of this world, not by redaction like the birthplace of K'awil Pakal, but out of irrelevance to the Primarch and Legion alike. Unlike most of his brother Primarchs, Yucahu would never rise to rule, keeping instead a place as general in a state remembered only as the Coalition. He illustrated himself as a brilliant commander, precise airstrikes and drop-infantry raids earning his nation victory over many of its foes. Countless battles were fought on the surface, countless new weapons were created, only new tools to perfect Yucahu's destructive craft. As decades passed the theaters of war extended higher and higher into the atmosphere, until it reached the ancient rings. There he is recorded as devising innovative tactics to fight in the weightless confines of the stations, forming a corps of Espatiers known as the Void Marines, comparable in their disposition and equipment to pre-Imperial Saturnyne Hoplites. While other nations were still using ground-war logic, Yucahu's troops were exclusively formed to tridimensional warfare, moving with ease through the dark, derelict facilities and ambushing their foes from all directions simultaneously. As greater segments of the stations were secured, their treasures were gradually unveiled: orbital construction systems, trans-solar vehicles, and three warp-capable vessels, almost intact in their grandeur despite spending millennia unattended. It so happened that these wars were simultaneous with the dissipation of the galactic Warp storms of the Age of Strife. These would prove instrumental to the Primarch's ascension. His prowess in the orbital wars had earned him a great reputation on the entirety of the planet, his treatises on warfare becoming the basis of modern strategy. With the main battles over, and the lesser work left to his subordinates, Yucahu was named Marshall of the Space Force. Expansionist politics and scientific wanderlust in his government quickly ordered his newly-formed fleet to conquer the stars, he alone herald of both dawn and doom. In the unknown darkness of space, the Primarch was de facto commander of the Coalition's armies, as well as all civilian personnel onboard his fleet. His first documented conquest is that of Ekhwesh, a planet whose inhabitants had reverted to early industrial levels of civilisation, yet retained technologically advanced weaponry. Semi-sentient orbital defense grids took a surprisingly heavy toll on the initial scout squadrons, but showed extremely predictable patterns, which allowed for their destruction without a single loss on the Primarch's side. The planetary phase of the battle was far more bloody, soulless bombings both orbital and atmospheric targeted on political and military centers, to no avail: the people of Ekhwesh would not yield. Rather than accept that honorable trait and leave them be, Yucahu ordered more ruthless actions: the simultaneous crushing of all major population centers. In four hours, the planet had lost fourty million inhabitants, one quarter of its total population. Only then did Ekhwesh surrender to the "bringer of death born from the stars", or Oprit-Sumakutaa. As the Ekhweshi survivors were taken into the Starborn Fleet, the name stuck among his drafted troops, initially as a veiled insult. Ultimately the Primarch would take it as his own, in defiance to the defeated: Yucahu Sumakutaa, whose combined meanings translate as "Lord of the fleets born from the stars". Under this new title, the Primarch would subjugate dozens of worlds for the Coalition, from xeno-enslaved Irautza to the burgeoning kingdom of Salezada, and the much valued Forges of Vernes, whose alliance with the Coalition gave Yucahu's conquests a massive boost in materiel strength, especially Warp-capable. This wave of conquests would only meet its end in 933.M30 on Coaban. For unlike his brother Primarchs, Yucahu would first meet the Emperor on a battlefield. Coaban had gained a fearsome reputation in the local sector for its advanced weaponry, and with its recent acquisition of spacecraft, was threatening the expansion of both the Coalition and southwestern Imperium. Arriving at the Mandeville threshold, Imperial and Coaltiion forces struck a temporary alliance to bring Coaban to kneel. It was agreed that Marshall Sumakutaa's fleet, being more numerous, would engage orbital defenses while Zamindar Mashyan's Astartes made planetfall to wage war on the ground. However, both forces had underestimated the might of Coabanite weaponry. C-beams fired from satellite stations burned through ships as if they were cardboard, while the Morning Stars lost five of their own for each autodrone destroyed. For weeks on end the battle lasted, the allied forces slowly gaining ground, until the Coalition decided to break a point of its agreement: orbital bombardment was declared, shaking continents while the Primarch himself dropped to the position of Mashyan. Together, Void Marines and Astartes fought to the oligarchy's mockery of a Senate, where they unleashed a rain of bolt-shell and Vernal shotgun rounds upon the despots. The leaders deposed, Coaban was left a burning waste, and as occupation forces from both parties awaited orders, a golden leviathan appeared in the skies: Imperator Somnium, the Emperor's own flagship. When the Emperor teleported down to the still-smoking battlefield, it is said that Yucahu instantly knelt, recognizing him as his true liege. Onboard the Emperor's ship, oaths were sworn, the Coalition officially dissolving into the Imperium, and Marshall Yucahu took the mantle of Primarch of the Fourth Legion; from this day on, they would be Morning Stars no more, but Void Eagles, in deference to the Aquila of his Lord; their livery would be brass, a lesser metal to the Emperor's gold. Coaban was given to him as a recruitment ground, and as a last gift before leaving, the Emperor granted his son with a Gloriana-class battle-barge: the Ala Lux, and an order to wage the Great Crusade. As an historator, I cannot help but wonder at whether this Coalition could have eclipsed the Dominion, had Yucahu been less humble than the Mycenor. Storm Unleashed While the Day of Revelation had been a mighty hammer blow struck against the very foundations of the Imperium, the Stormborn knew and had foreseen that it would not be enough to break his father’s empire which, sure enough, stood bloodied but unbowed. Therefore, with the bloody toll of the Day of Revelation not yet fully realised by the Warmaster and with confusion across the Imperium, the Stormborn gathered those brothers who had chosen to stand with him, either upon Madrigal in person or by hololith. There, he shared with them his plan for the next phase of his war to topple his father from the Throne of Terra. The Stormborn had foreseen that this war would be long, drawn out and bloody. While there were many planetary and system governors who had pledged him their loyalty, the vast majority had not, instead remaining loyal to the Throne World. Those who did rebel alongside the Stormborn were often, even within the galactic core where Icarion's influence was strongest, separated by many loyalist counterparts. Therefore, as he outlined to his brothers, the next stage in Icarion's plan was to build upon the fragments of an empire that they now possessed, build outwards, conquering surrounding systems and solidifying the Stormborn’s grip over that region where he possessed the most support: the galactic core. However, not all the Loyalist Legions were so badly bloodied upon the Day of Revelation as to be unable to resist the Stormborn’s expansion. Of all the Loyalist Legions, the Halcyon Wardens had, on the face of it, suffered the least upon the Day of Revelation and still remained largely intact. However, while nearly half of the Legion answered Alexandros' call and gathered in the Sol system to fight in the reconquest of Mars, in and of itself a bloody conflict that saw the Legions pitted against the full might of the Insurrectionist Mechanicum, tens of thousands more were spread out across the galaxy in defensive garrisons, from the 60 guarding the watch station on the moon of Bilkan to the thousands deployed to worlds that sat at the hub of major warp routes. Because of their place in these garrisons, the Vth would bleed heavily in these early years, paying as much blood as their brothers had had to upon the Day of Revelation. To a lesser degree, the stalwart and unyielding Fire Keepers would suffer heavily. While they were not as widespread as those of the Halycon Wardens, no Legion could match the Fire Keepers skill for the defence and construction of fortifications and so many worlds of great importance were garrisoned by the Xth rather than the Vth. Due to their importance, these worlds would often prove beacons for the Stormborn’s forces, who fell on them without mercy and in their dedication, the Fire Keepers died where they stood rather than give way, always taking many of their foes with them when they fell yet always falling eventually. However, it is likely that those who paid the heaviest price for their loyalty were the Void Eagles. They were not spread in garrisons, for the impatient sons of Yucahu had never been adept at manning walls. Instead, they would be used by the Warmaster as a rapid response force due to their expertise in void warfare and consequent fleet based nature and great mobility. Wherever the Warmaster saw a danger to the Loyalist line, he would send the Void Eagles to plug it or, at the very least, slow the Insurrectionists until the massive bulk of the Imperial Army could be flooded into the danger zone. Therefore, in these early years, the Void Eagles could always be found where the fighting was fiercest, the odds the most desperate and played a crucial role in denying the Stormborn some crucial systems and most importantly buying the Warmaster time: time to assess the situation and regroup. Time to muster the Imperial Army. Time to rebuild his Legions. Yet this time came at a cost in IVth Legion lives. Due to both the nature of Void Eagles as a Legion and the chaotic nature of this early fighting, precise estimates are impossible for quite how heavy the cost they paid was. Some have cited the gargantuan and implausible figure of 130% casualties. However, for a Legion to have renewed itself in just two years would be nearly impossible and would have put severe strain on both the Legion’s command and combat effectiveness, even with use of the methods pioneered by the Warbringers in the years before the Vizenko Prosecution. Some have cited the erratic nature of Void Eagles units strategies and behaviours as evidence for use of such techniques however it is worth noting that even during the Great Crusade, the Void Eagles had never been a predictable Legion. However, for all their bravery, the loyalists could not undo what had been done. The iron fist of the Stormborn closed around the galactic core and it brought war with it, war like none had seen before. War between the Legions, raging across a thousand systems and consuming all it touched. Here I recount the story of this war’s earliest years and earliest campaigns, campaigns that raged before even the dust of the Day of Revelation had settled and continued to rage long after. The Weapon and Its Master Leaving the dissolved Coalition behind, Yucahu devoted himself to the Emperor's Great Crusade. As such, his first concern was the disposition of his new Legion. Although there had been an initial excitement at the prospect of being reunited with their Primarch, the Morning Stars quickly became divisive as they came to understand the true nature of their gene-sire. A number of the legionnaires declared that honour dictated their submission to their new liege lord and adopted Yucahu's brass and the moniker 'Void Eagles'. However, a significant remnant rejected both, claiming that they could not in good conscience betray the traditions that had sustained them for decades of the Great Crusade. Many Imperial observers watched the growing conflict with great curiosity. After all, it was only a mere six years earlier where the Shepherds of Eden broke ranks from the Berserkers of Uran, supported by powerful patrons. Many quietly wondered if a similar situation, the creation of a new Legion 'Auxilia', would come to pass. This hypothetical situation never came to pass. Unlike the more brutal Akarro, Yucahu, while refusing to change his ways to mollify his irate sons, was content to allow them to fight as they wished so long as they continued completing compliance operations in the Emperor's service. This stubborn remnant was given their own fleet and kept their old title before continuing on with the Great Crusade. Many Imperial observers watched the growing conflict with great curiosity. After all, it was only a mere six years earlier where the Shepherds of Eden broke ranks from the Berserkers of Uran, supported by powerful patrons. Many quietly wondered if a similar situation, the creation of a new Legion 'Auxilia', would come to pass. This hypothetical situation never came to pass. Unlike the more brutal Akarro, Yucahu, while refusing to change his ways to mollify his irate sons, was content to allow them to fight as they wished so long as they continued completing compliance operations in the Emperor's service. This stubborn remnant was given their own fleet and kept their old title before continuing on with the Great Crusade. The remaining Sons of Yucahu would make the transition to Void Eagles, steadily leaving their traditions and past identity behind as attrition did the rest. The history of every Legion contains a turning point, where the dominant Terran culture was confronted with - and typically supplanted by - another. This is true of the IVth, more so than many of their cousins, as history sadly attests. The nature of the culture that eventually came to dominate was unusual, however, because it was not tied to a particular stellar polity. While the Iron Bears and Crimson Lions bear the influence of their Primarchs' realms at almost every level, the Void Eagles drew almost nothing from the world where their father was fostered, to the extent that it is now forgotten by Imperial records. Yucahu reckoned any attachment to his homeworld to be unnecessary sentiment, and while the Legion exercised its recruitment rights there, no Astartes partook in its governance. Nor was any grand fortress-monastery established to rival the floating Stormspire of Madrigal or the Ebensagab, hewn from three mountains through Niklaas’ architectural insight. The Void Eagles moved fast, often ranging far ahead of the bow wave that was the Great Crusade, taking recruits as tribute from hundreds of worlds. Certain Clans of the Crimson Lions were similarly adventurous, but they would regularly seek out the company of their brothers, taking in new warriors at these times. In this way, the dominance of their parent culture was preserved. Not so the Void Eagles. Except for the rare occasion that a fleet took such heavy losses as to force a pause to rearm and replenish their numbers, they made it necessary for new blood to pursue them. To this end, neophytes would undertake the latter years of their training across several worlds en route to their designated fleet. However, the lion’s share of their trials and lessons occurred aboard the ships that carried them. While Yucahu’s chosen specialisation would have forged his sons into masters of ship-to-ship combat anyway, this policy surely provided a catalyst for their expertise, and the Void Eagles boasted an unusually high number of breachers. Those neophytes who hailed from Coaban and other permanent recruitment worlds found themselves surrounded by comrades from a multitude of planets, as well as those born in the confines of IV Legion vessels, who had never trodden soil. Imperial Gothic was the de facto language when so few shared a first language. Moreover, the often observed effect of Ascension on an Aspirant’s memory seems to have played a part in creating the “voidborn” culture. Many space marines, in stark contrast to their near-perfect recall of events following their metamorphosis, have attested to faint, incomplete memories of Ascension and life before it. Whisked away shortly after most of the implants had taken, these young warriors would have had little recollection of the worlds that had raised them. Their experience was then of fleeting planetfall, interspersed with a far greater amount of time in the void or the Warp. During the Rangdan Xenocides, many inductees were abruptly taken from their homes and accelerated growth and implantation methods used to make them into Astartes. Such practices can only have exacerbated the above phenomena. As a consequence of all this, few affectations from parent cultures survived among the Void Eagles, and while the fleets differentiated themselves aesthetically, those differences could not easily be traced back to any one system. Idiosyncratic weapon types and variants were almost entirely absent, whereas they dominated the arsenals of the Lightning Bearers and Eagle Warriors. There was one exception - Alvator's 5th Fleet - yet their deviations originated with their eccentric Mechanicum allies, who consistently skirted excommunication from the Cult of Mars even before Alvator led them into a decades-long absence. In Legion and serf slang, references to the normality that the void represented were commonplace; the heat of an enginarium came to a IV legionary’s mind more readily than a warm day. Some even showed an aversion to planet-welled water or non-synthesised meat - to the bafflement of many a cousin or remembrancer. Brotherhood came with surprising ease to the new intakes, perhaps because they lacked pronounced cultures to separate them. This “blank slate” effect may also have contributed to the Void Eagles’ remarkable degree of loyalty to the Emperor. They existed as His soldiers and nothing else but brothers to one another, with little time or inclination to speculate on their purpose beyond that. Moreover, the warrior lodges which incubated the seeds of rebellion in many Legions were simply found superfluous among the Void Eagles, who maintained their own customs to foster kinship. Thus it was that, when betrayal cast the Imperium into disarray, the Void Eagles adjusted with relative ease, fighting and living as ever they had. They were the marauders, anchored nowhere and taking what they needed from wherever they could get it. The Master's Retirement At the Qarith Triumph, the Emperor would declare that his part in the Great Crusade would temporarily end. While only offering a vague answer as to why, the Emperor appointed Alexandros to lead the Great Crusade in his stead through the office of Warmaster. It was a decision that was simultaneously celebrated and reviled. Among his brothers, Yucahu took a more measured approach. In his private thoughts, Yucahu doubted that the position of Warmaster was necessary, believing the office would become a source of conflict and envy between the Primarchs, preferring that the Emperor remain in his place but more as a figurehead. Furthermore, Yucahu was surprised as many were that Alexandros was chosen over Icarion. It was an open secret that the Shield-Lord desired the battlefield of words to bolt shells and had subtly dissented with some of the Emperor's decisions. However, for all of his doubts, the Brass Lord was practical and loyal. Whatever he may have thought privately, Yucahu publicly supported the new Warmaster and continued his service to the Imperium without question. Despite minor disagreements, Yucahu became satisfied with the Warmaster's performance. Finding that the Warmaster adroitly handling the bureaucracy, Yucahu was freed to devote more time to his campaigns and finish the Great Crusade's purpose. Thus, when the Stormborn began to assemble allies for the incoming Insurrection, Icarion had hoped to turn Yucahu to his cause with claims that the Warmaster and the Emperor had become too detached from the Great Crusade. No effort lasted beyond a few careful probes. For Yucahu cared little how the Warmaster executed his duties, so long as the Great Crusade continued to expand onward. Finally, no mock argument could shake the Brass Lord's ironclad fidelity to the Emperor. Unable to convert Yucahu to his cause, Icarion would then turn his attention to the Void Eagles themselves. To the everlasting shame of Yucahu, the Lord of the IVth had not been able to cultivate the same degree of loyalty within his own Legion as he himself evinced. For his failure, the Void Eagles would suffer mightily on the Day of Revelation as those ostensibly within the Legion would turn their own ships against the Star-Born. Scouring Aftermath After the Scouring, Yucahu began to doubt his purpose. Following the Edict of Division, he broke of his legion and ventured to the edge of the galaxy, where he announced his retirement from the Imperium, and ventured in the darkness beyond, with five hundred Astartes at his side. Though believed lost by the majority of the Imperium, the Void Eagles believe he will return for the End Times. Wargear Category:S Category:Imperial Characters